How to Optimize Page Loading Speed to Improve SEO Marketing and Website SEO Keyword Ranking
How to Optimize Page Loading Speed to Improve SEO Marketing and Website SEO Keyword Ranking
The 2023 Complete Beginner's Guide for Businesses and Content Creators
Table of Contents
Website speed measures how fast elements on webpage load, including everything from images and text to the backend coding. Why does it matter? Because Google has made page speed a ranking factor that affects your website’s ranking position in search results.
Does Page Speed Affect SEO
Let’s begin by looking at some statistics related to website page speed and how it impacts website ranking, conversion rate, and user experience.
How Important Is Page Speed for SEO – Top 3 Statistics Why Website Page Speed Matter
- The first five seconds of website page load time have the highest impact on conversion rates (Portent, 2019.)
- Nearly 70% of consumers admit that website page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer (Unbounce, 2019.)
- The highest eCommerce conversion rates occur on webpages with load times between 0-2 seconds (Portent, 2019.)
Website Page Speed SEO Impacts Organic Ranking
Webpage’s insufficient loading speed negatively impacts SEO efforts and results in high bounce rate. Bounce rate is a metric measuring the percentage of visitors leaving a webpage without taking any action. An action can be visitors viewing more than one webpage, interacting with on-page elements, or responding to a call-to-action.
High Bounce Rate Leads to Lower Conversion Rate
A high bounce rate can lead to visitors spending less time on your website (measured by average time on webpage) and result in a lower conversion rate (conversion can be anything from making a purchase to subscribing to newsletters).
Website Page Loading Speed Affects User Experience
A slow-loading webpage can ultimately affect user experience. Think about your own experience waiting for a webpage to load. The longer you wait, the less patience you have, and the more likely you will close out the webpage.
What happens if a webpage does not finish loading after 10 seconds of waiting? Most visitors will likely close out the browser at this point, which is a lost conversion opportunity.
How to Test for Website Page Loading Speed?
The first step to correcting a slow webpage is to find out what is slowing it down. Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool will highlight and suggest solutions to problems hindering your page loading speed.
Follow the steps below to test page speed and get recommendations on improving page speed SEO.
Leverage Google PageSpeed Tool to Improve Website Page Speed SEO
- Enter the URL of the webpage to test and click “analyze.”
- Google will give you a complete summary of what you should fix, consider fixing, and a list of webpage speed rules you have already passed.
- The suggestions are categorized by mobile and desktop test results so that you can optimize page speed for all viewing devices.
How to Improve Website Page Speed SEO
Google created official page speed rules spelling out precisely what should be done to increase page loading speed.
Here are the top four strategies to fix the most common page speed problems and instantly improve page speed SEO.
Top 4 Strategies to Instantly Improve Page Speed SEO
#1. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML Resources to Increase Page Loading Speed
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet), JavaScript, and HTML are all coding languages used to build a website. Codes are contained in resource files in the backend of a webpage, and file size can increase as more codes are added over time.
Minifying Resource File Sizes Improve Page Loading Speed
Minimizing or reducing resource file size by removing unnecessary code can improve page loading speed. When done correctly, the process of minifying resource files should not affect how code functions.
Google Recommends Github to Minify Resource Files
Google recommends Github to reduce resource file sizes. GitHub is a platform that hosts code for version control and collaboration. It allows everyone working on the same project to receive the latest changes and updates simultaneously, regardless of location.
Top 3 Types of Github Minifier Google Recommends
- HTML Minifier for HTML codes
- CSSNano and CSSO for CSS
- UglifyJS for JavaScript
#2. Use CDN (Content Delivery Network) to Improve Page Loading Speed
What is a CDN
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. It is a network of servers placed in various geographical locations that save copies of a website to be recalled quickly for visitors with a faster page loading speed.
How CDN Improves Page Loading Speed
CDN improves website page loading speed by delivering cache content through a server that is in close proximity to where the visitor is located.
Example of How CDN Works
For example, a visitor in Los Angeles, CA, will see a webpage load faster than a visitor in New York, NY, when the server is located in California.
Therefore, the more geographical locations the Content Delivery Network’s servers can cover, the better overall page loading speed visitors will experience.
How to Get a CDN
You can get CDN service through reputable providers such as Cloudflare, which features hundreds of premium data centers worldwide, covering major markets such as North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Cloudflare creates cache copies of website content and optimizes content delivery speed to the end visitor.
How to Get a Free CDN with WPEngine Managed Web Hosting
Cloudflare CDN is WPEngine’s partner Content Delivery Network, and you can receive free CDN service through WPEngine web hosting. This combination offers the benefit of reliable managed web hosting plus dependable CDN service all in one package.
#3. Reduce Image File Sizes to Optimize Page Speed SEO
A top Google Website Page Speed Test rule is image optimization. When a website hosts a large number of image files, bandwidth can quickly exhaust as website visits increase.
Use Web Design Tool to Reduce Image File Sizes
Large image files slow down webpage loading speed. Using a graphic tool like Adobe Photoshop to reduce image file sizes can save bandwidth and improve website page loading speed.
How to Reduce Image File Size with Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop, an industry-standard graphic design tool, has a convenient “Save for Web” function to reduce the image size with the ability to control the quality of image files. It is one of the best graphic tools for web design.
#4. Compress Video File Sizes to Boost Page Loading Speed
Video is a creative form of content to engage visitors. However, page loading speed can be significantly impacted when a large file size video is inserted on a webpage. Videos can quickly drain bandwidth and take up too much storage space on the web hosting account. Using a third-party video hosting platform is the best solution to include a video on a webpage without slowing down the page loading speed.
Use a Third-Party Video Hosting Platform to Improve Page Speed SEO
The advantage of using a third-party video hosting platform is the benefit of saving bandwidth and memory storage. Instead of uploading videos directly to your website, publish videos on a third-party server first and embed the link to the video on your website without compromising webpage loading speed.
Video Hosting with YouTube
YouTube is the best free platform to host videos as a simple, cost-effective solution to get started and embed videos on a website. With more than 2.5 billion users to date, YouTube provides a good amount of visibility in terms of video content marketing. In addition, you can leverage YouTube to expand market exposure, gain more views, and attract new audiences with video content.
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